Swift Package Manager

Creation and usage of a simple Swift package

To create a Swift Package, open a Terminal then create an empty folder:

mkdir AwesomeProject
cd AwesomeProject

And init a Git repository:

git init

Then create the package itself. One could create the package structure manually but there’s a simple way using the CLI command.

If you want to make an executable:

swift package init --type executable

Several files will be generated. Among them, main.swift will be the entry point for your application.

If you want to make a library:

swift package init --type library

The generated AwesomeProject.swift file will be used as the main file for this library.

In both cases you can add other Swift files in the Sources folder (usual rules for access control apply).

The Package.swift file itself will be automatically populated with this content:

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "AwesomeProject"
)

Versioning the package is done with Git tags:

git tag '1.0.0'

Once pushed to a remote or local Git repository, your package will be available to other projects.

Your package is now ready to be compiled:

swift build

The compiled project will be available in the .build/debug folder.

Your own package can also resolve dependencies to other packages. For example, if you want to include “SomeOtherPackage” in your own project, change your Package.swift file to include the dependency:

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "AwesomeProject",
    targets: [],
    dependencies: [
        .Package(url: "https://github.com/someUser/SomeOtherPackage.git",
                 majorVersion: 1),
    ]
)

Then build your project again: the Swift Package Manager will automatically resolve, download and build the dependencies.